STORY: Chinese doctors help restore eyesight for cataract patients in Cambodia
SHOOTING TIME: Nov. 14, 2023
DATELINE: Nov. 16, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:37
LOCATION: Phnom Penh
CATEGORY: HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the hospital 
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Khmer): KEA REN, Cataract patient
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Khmer): BUTH RON, Cataract patient
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (Khmer): SO SOPANHAVATEI, Director of Prey Veng Provincial Referral Hospital
5. SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): ZHAI JIANWEI, Chinese ophthalmologist
6. various of the hospital

STORYLINE:

Since 2022, a China-aided cataract blindness elimination project has been helping Cambodian patients restore eyesight in the country's Prey Veng Province.

Funded by China's GX Foundation, the Cataract Blindness Eradication Project for the period of three years from September 2022 to September 2025 is expected to regain vision for some 10,000 cataract patients.

Under the project, the GX Foundation has dispatched a Chinese medical team, together with two mobile eye treatment centers and a 35-seat bus, to offer free cataract surgery to patients in Prey Veng.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Khmer): KEA REN, Cataract patient
"I've had cataract for about six to seven years. Cataract surgery was good, and I'm elated that my eyesight was restored.
I'm happy that the doctors have come to help impoverished cataract patients regain vision. Before surgery, my vision was cloudy, but after surgery, it has come back."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Khmer): BUTH RON, Cataract patient
"I'm delighted that they, foreigners, have come to help Cambodians and the surgery does not cost us any money at all.
I want them to come every year because this is a very good humanitarian mission to eliminate blindness among our people."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Khmer): SO SOPANHAVATEI, Director of the Prey Veng Provincial Referral Hospital
"This project has provided a lot of benefits to Cambodian people because in Cambodia, particularly in Prey Veng Province, there are a lot of cataract patients, and surgeries are needed to restore their eyesight."

Ophthalmologist Zhai Jianwei, leader of the eight-member Chinese medical team from Liuzhou Red Cross Hospital in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said the team has provided eye check-ups to more than 50 patients and performed at least 35 surgeries every day.

SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): ZHAI JIANWEI, Chinese ophthalmologist
"Personally, I feel extremely honored and proud. It is a glory for us as doctors, representing Guangxi and even China to contribute our medical knowledge to helping the people of Prey Veng Province regain their eyesight."

It is the second China-aided project in Cambodia after the first such one ended in 2019, helping restore eyesight for more than 6,000 cataract patients in the southeastern Kampong Cham Province. 

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Phnom Penh.
(XHTV)